A multiplexer is a device for transferring data from a plurality of inputs to a single storage facility. Many radiation monitors utilize scintillation counters, ionization chambers, proportional counters and photomultipliers. They are detectors which randomly generate pulses whose output amplitudes are converted to constant voltage pulses whose width is exactly proportional to the amplitude of the input pulse. These width modulated pulses' time duration must be measured and stored together with an indication of the particular detector which was the source of the pulse. Prior art devices for doing this require an intermediate buffering for each detector of a monitor system to insure that simultaneous events are not lost. Since the pulses from the detectors occur randomly and over large periods of time, economy of apparatus, i.e. only one master storage, can be achieved if a multiplexing scheme can be provided to transfer data from the detectors to the buffer in such a manner that data is not lost if simultaneous scintillation events occur. To achieve the limited apparatus utilizing only one master buffer, the multiplexer or intermediate buffer desirably has a fast fixed time delay and ideally would have minimum data loss and minimum hardware requirements.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved multiplexer.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved multiplexer for transferring data in the form of pulse duration and pulse source from a plurality of detectors to a master buffer.